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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

[NEWSFLASH] Chick-fil-A to Close and Rebuild Restaurants in Smyrna and East Cobb

Chick-fil-A will soon close its longstanding location at 3100 South Cobb Drive in Smyrna. The restaurant, which first opened December 15, 1988, will close Friday April 13, and be demolished and rebuilt, similar to the "scrape & rebuild" the company completed this past January on North Druid Hills Road in Atlanta. The freestanding North Druid Hills Chick-fil-A was referred to as the oldest freestanding Chick-fil-A restaurant in the company. The North Druid Hills restaurant opened April 16, 1986, and was soon followed by others, South Cobb Drive among them.

Chick-fil-A at 3100 South Cobb Drive in Smyrna

The 3100 South Cobb Drive location should not be confused with the 5120 South Cobb Drive location which opened in 2008 in a converted Church's Chicken. The 5120 location, just off 1-285 and about four miles from the 3100 location, will remain open and welcome Smyrna area Chick-fil-A patrons looking to get their fix.

The 3100 restaurant is expected to remain closed for five to six months with an expected reopening later this fall.

In East Cobb, the freestanding Chick-fil-A at 1201 Johnson Ferry Road in Woodlawn Square shopping center will also close and be rebuilt. The restaurant, which opened August 12, 1987, is expected to close Monday, July 9, with a planned reopening in November.

It is not yet known if either of the locations will participate in Chick-fil-A's "First 100" opening promotion upon their completion.

Chick-fil-A's rebuilding efforts are meant to create more efficient restaurants, better able to accommodate and serve customers in a variety of ways.

Chick-fil-A has in recent years invested heavily in rebuilding existing Atlanta area restaurants. The Chick-fil-A on Windy Hill Road reopened in 2016, followed by the drive-thru-only (DTO) Chick-fil-A on Cobb Parkway at Akers Mill Square last year. In addition to the North Druid Hills reopening this past January, the DTO on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs reopened last month.

The DTO on Fairburn Road in Douglasville closed in February and is expected to reopen in July. It will reportedly look similar to the rebuilt DTO locations on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs and on Cobb Parkway near Cumberland Mall. Another Douglasville area Chick-fil-A, on GA-Highway 5 near Arbor Place Mall, was also slated to rebuild this year, but those plans have been pushed into 2019.

Other 80s era Chick-fil-A restaurants including those in Chamblee, Doraville, Douglasville, Duluth (2), Lilburn, Marietta, Norcross and Tucker, among others, are likely to be rebuilt in the coming years, although Chick-fil-A's representatives have yet to comment on when such projects might begin.

Are you excited for the rebuilt Smyrna and East Cobb Chick-fil-A restaurants? Do you think that the new restaurants are an improvement over their prior iterations? What is your favorite fast food chicken chain?

14 comments:

I do hope Chick-fil-A takes a close look at the North Druid Hills location because the rebuild made the location's parking, drive thru and interior more difficult to navigate. Judging by the decrease in the number of kid's in the rebuilt playground, I'm-a-guessing it's less pleasant, too.

True that. I think every Chick-Fil-A really is like that at lunch.The Vinings one is especially bad because not only is it tight (no bail out lane once you are in the drive thru) and has a tiny parking lot, but also because Starbucks is right next to it with its own drive-thru line of death out to Cumberland Parkway!

Re: Chick-fil-A "losing business because the traffic cannot be handled" LOL CFA is doing just fine, and in actuality helps the sales of other fast food business within close proximity. Even in off peak lunch and dinner times CFA is always busy.

The Chick Fil A at North Druid Hills road had a large dining room and it was close to full every weekday during and after lunch. The dining area has been reduced greatly and is sometimes difficult to find a spot to sit. Not to mention trying to cross over two lanes of drive-thru traffic to get to a hidden door while everyone in their cars are texting and playing on their phones and not paying attention. The service is quick and the employees friendly, but this design is horrible.

I hope both of you will share your comments with the CFA corporate offices, especially the part about reducing the size of the inside dining area to the point where it's now difficult to find a place to sit during peak hours, and the less-pleasant playground atmosphere that fewer children are using.

What in the hell were they thinking when they attempted to "provide an even more remarkable dining experience for our guests"?

Smaller "dining" rooms are a trend in fast food with drive thru because - HELLO - the vast majority of their business is DRIVE THRU

"What in the hell were they thinking when they attempted to "provide an even more remarkable dining experience for our guests"?" - HELLO - that applies to the majority DINING in their car!

"the less-pleasant playground atmosphere that fewer children are using." - HELLO - most kids don't play anymore, and if the majority are going to the DRIVE THRU. Those kids would trather sit on their smart phones or electronic games in their parents' car.

HELLO- Why do you people think they are revamping the drive thru's with multiple lanes?

We have become such a lazy society.I totally understand if you are not planning to eat in the restaurant and have a couple kids in car seats that the drive thru totally makes sense.But whenever I grab lunch from CFA I always park and run inside instead of waiting in the 35 car drive thru line. I think it's nearly always faster.

It matters not who is right or wrong..in fact their is no right or wrong,just observations. Regardless...no one should, nor has the right to call someone a moron just because of a different perspective, and adding screw off is just plain juvenile. If you disagree and think the other is a moron, well that's your right. But social grace and manners inherently tell you to keep it to yourself. By attacking someone you do not know over something so trivial does not bode well. This is why society is breaking down...Shame on you for calling someone you really do not know a moron just because you disagree on a chicken sandwich outlet operations. Think about it....I hope you become a better person.